With the continued popularity of the Dungeon Finder, many players have been asking for a way to group up with real-life friends who play on other realms to take on instances together. Today, we wanted to give you a heads up about a new feature currently in development that will allow players to invite Real ID friends of the same faction to a party regardless of the realm they play on, and then queue up for a 5-player regular or Heroic dungeon.

As this is a fairly complex service to develop, we don’t have a release date to share quite yet. It’s important to note that as with some of the other convenience- and connectivity-oriented features we offer, certain elements of the cross-realm Real ID party system will be premium-based, though only the player sending the invitations will need to have access to the premium service. We'll have more details to share with you as development progresses -- in the meantime, you may begin to see elements of the feature appear on the World of Warcraft PTR.

China is not at the end of Wrath. We had 2 years of Wrath, they're on their 9th month. It will still be another 9 months before they're approaching the end of Wrath.

I would say at least another 3-6 months when they got 3.3 in December, just 6 months after WotLK launch. But their numbers should still be hovering around peak.

Banned players generally resub the moment they're banned so they essentialy count for 2 subscriptions or more in the same month. What this means is that on top of all the banned accounts, and those people resubbing, US/EU lost over a million subscriptions and only regained about 400k new players.

If those fans were really that loyal of customers and really cared they would still be playing wrath content or farming gold for 85 boe's and such. You really must be on Blizzard's dick or are blind as fuck to not see WoW is awful and Blizzard is falling down a hole.

Amen.

I refuse to give my money to Blizzard to keep developing this bullshit.

Lots of people stopped playing at the end of Wrath. You should know that. Also I do not like the offensive insults you are throwing around and would ask you to please act like an adult.

I wasn't aware that adults no longer used foul language. It just annoys me how ignorant you are to the situation and you are trying to use facts that are all incorrect so far. You are overly obsessed with World of Warcraft that its' clouded your mind. You are sitting defending a company that makes so much money but does not give back to their playerbase ever. I understand the premium service is optional but to add such an easy feature and then charge for it you have to be out of your fucking mind. I no longer play WoW and haven't for a couple months now, and I still think the idea is absurd. I, in no way wished to see Blizzard fail until after this right here. I have never complained about a single thing. About a class being overpowered, a class being underpowered, and transfer fees. I loved the game I just got bored with it. But this premium service shit has to go or they will take a huge hit far more than they already have. It's as if they are trying to step down from being the MMO Champion.

Would say stop saying it's just Activision, if Blizzard wasn't in agreement with this they wouldn't have added it in otherwise we have to accept that they aren't independant at all anymore and therefor all the bad and the good should be credited to actiblizzard not just one or the other.

Secondly, those saying it's okay that you have to pay extra for "extra features". At what point does something become an extra feature and at what point does something become standard part of your monthly subscription fee? knowing that these premium features are starting to appear at a more frequent rate then our content patches that are still locked down to 4 to 6 months or even longer cycles.

Cassadin, you're assumptions about Asian players are hilariously inaccurate. WotLK peaked in US/EU roughly 6 months after 3.3 launched. WoW had 11.5 million players then. What makes you think that China wouldn't still be near peak when WoW just announced 12 million subscribers in December, coincidentally the same time Cata was launched in US/EU. It's not a coincidence. China subscriptions fluctuate similarly to US/EU subscriptions except they're months behind.

Ok, my data may be wrong - I didn't realise they were THAT much behind with Wrath - I knew they were behind but not that much. We were "Done" with Wrath around April,May 2010 (not me personally but many people were complaining that ICC was getting boring then). Even if I am mistaken that still doesnt mean that "WoW is dying" as lots of people love to say.

It also is no excuse for the vulgar insults of some just because I have some data wrong.

I'm completely against being nickled and dimed for features. One of the huge turn offs for games like LoTRO or DDO. They need to raise the base subscription if in-game features like these really require charging for them.

Blizzard used to detail their sub account by continent but stopped sometime in 2007/2008. The last time those numbers were included, China had 3.5 million of 8 million total. It's safe to assume that China holds 50% if not more of Blizzard's total sub count.

Ok, my data may be wrong - I didn't realise they were THAT much behind with Wrath - I knew they were behind but not that much. We were "Done" with Wrath around April,May 2010 (not me personally but many people were complaining that ICC was getting boring then). Even if I am mistaken that still doesnt mean that "WoW is dying" as lots of people love to say.

It also is no excuse for the vulgar insults of some just because I have some data wrong.

WoW has been hemorrhaging players in North America and Europe since 2008 but they've always been able to offset their bottom line of total subscriptions with new subscribers in China. It's why they stopped releasing regional subscription data. This didn't happen this time. All the lost subscriptions from the US/EU were LARGER than the total number of NEW subscriptions from US/EU/China combined. They lost ALOT more than 600k subscribers. At the end of the quarter though, they ended up negative 600k subscribers overall. This really shouldn't happen so long as WoW is riding on WoTLK highs in China. It points heavily to the fact that Cataclysm is a major major flop in US/EU.

But you're not currently paying for the ability to play with your friends on other servers without leaving your server. Blizzard never promised to let you do this.

Our subscription pays, amongst other things, for continued development and improvement of WoW. That's the reason we pay a subscription instead of just the one-time fee that most games have. Over the years, we've gotten a lot of cool features for our subs - battlegrounds, linked AHs, raids, continous flightpaths, armory, flying mounts, arena, account-bound items, LFD, you name it - all of them "free", "complex", "optional" and "unpromised". And yet now, what should be a natural extention of LFD and RealID suddenly needs its own special payment. It makes no sense and it stinks of greed. I really hope Blizzard reconsiders it.

I wasn't aware that adults no longer used foul language. It just annoys me how ignorant you are to the situation and you are trying to use facts that are all incorrect so far. You are overly obsessed with World of Warcraft that its' clouded your mind. You are sitting defending a company that makes so much money but does not give back to their playerbase ever. I understand the premium service is optional but to add such an easy feature and then charge for it you have to be out of your fucking mind. I no longer play WoW and haven't for a couple months now, and I still think the idea is absurd. I, in no way wished to see Blizzard fail until after this right here. I have never complained about a single thing. About a class being overpowered, a class being underpowered, and transfer fees. I loved the game I just got bored with it. But this premium service shit has to go or they will take a huge hit far more than they already have. It's as if they are trying to step down from being the MMO Champion.

1. You have no idea about my mind and my "obsession" as you call it.
2. You are assuming I am defending Activision - I have never defended them I don't agree with what they are doing. I am only countering the "WoW is failing, WoW is dying" comments that people love to make and have made for years.
3. They arent "out of their minds" by doing this, they know that many people will pay for it - right or wrong.
4. Foul language is a different thing to offensive insults.

The depressing thing is people will pay for it.
Subscribers should be getting EVERY feature that they can release included in the subscription. That's the sort of thing we are led to believe when signing up.

Just lost 600k subs Blizzard? annoying a large portion of your remaining probably isn't the best way to go about getting them back.

Just lost 600k subs Blizzard? annoying a large portion of your remaining probably isn't the best way to go about getting them back.

Completely insane

More than that. That was just the net loss after net gains in Asian markets were factored in. It's like filing your taxes and counting business or rental property losses against the gross income in your hourly job. Doesn't work that way. Losses are still losses even if you offset your net. It's what they've been doing since 2008 to hide losses in US/EU.

1. I do because you are trying your hardest to defend Blizzard which shows a clear addiction to the game that you love so much. You have 5 85's and I'm willing to guess other alts in there ranging from 30-79. So you spend a good amount of time on the game.
2. You are defending them by trying to get ridiculous facts which are incorrect. You are clearly not countering anything.
3. They are out of their minds because not only from these forums alone but also their own forums, other forums and articles, and even facebook posts, many people are complaining and I come to guess more complaining than rejoicing. In fact I have yet to see a rejoice. I've seen a couple "Oh I might get it I guess."
4. Incorrect

Even if this is true - they STILL have China to come back online and make those numbers back up again. All I'm saying is people regularly talk about how Blizzard is failing and the game is dying, and its just not happening.

Are they making their player base "annoyed"? DAMN right they are, is it currently affecting their profits? Nope!

My goodness. You have no idea, do you? The Asian subs, which make up roughly 50% of the total player base, account for less than 10% of total WoW revenue. That means that if 600k people stop playing in Europe and America, the 50% that accounts for more than 90% of the income, that is a MASSIVE financial loss. In order to make up for that the Asian player base would have to grow exponentially, very quickly. So 600k people quitting is a big deal as it is, if those 600k are from Europe and America WoW is really hurting.

That's why I called you ignorant, because you rush to the defense with twisted facts, so don't tell *me* to engage my brain :P

People scream about the *Premium naming* Wich would mean blizzard would look down to people who dont use it the seperation from premium to normal account...Our accoutns wasn't called premium when we used migration. When suddenly u put this so called *premium* service u start seperate accounts...And people like u are the reason others cancel subscription logging in a forum to troll people who say their opinion...

The wording was used to make sure it is understood that this option will not be free. Same as other premium services such as Mobile AH or guild chat. You may use those premium services but your account will still be the same as mine or anyone else that is not paying for those. Saying that wording of the message was the main reason people start screaming is just stupid.

I also wonder why would people cancel their subscription because of any posts on unoffficial forums, let alone my posts as very infrequent poster

Feature might be worth it if premade cross realm raids, arenas, and battlegrounds are included but it still violates the spirit of the game and things Blizzard has said they would never do since day one. It's just the principle of thing. If they get away with releasing this ingame feature as a premium feature now, where does it end? If this is successful, what other features will they implement down the road that they're going to charge us more for? Weapons? Armor? Trinkets? Zones? Tier? How far does this have to go before we say no! We already payed for the box and we're paying a monthly subscription for access, why are we paying for these services for a THIRD time?

1. I do because you are trying your hardest to defend Blizzard which shows a clear addiction to the game that you love so much. You have 5 85's and I'm willing to guess other alts in there ranging from 30-79. So you spend a good amount of time on the game.
2. You are defending them by trying to get ridiculous facts which are incorrect. You are clearly not countering anything.
3. They are out of their minds because not only from these forums alone but also their own forums, other forums and articles, and even facebook posts, many people are complaining and I come to guess more complaining than rejoicing. In fact I have yet to see a rejoice. I've seen a couple "Oh I might get it I guess."
4. Incorrect

How is me saying they havent lost as many players as people claim (correctly OR incorrectly) defending them? I have clearly said I totally disagree with what they are doing, but just said that I do not believe it will backfire on them (I hope it does to a degree). I have not once said anyone thinks this is a great idea and are "rejoicing" as you put it, I have just said that people will pay it.

Saying I "must be on Blizzard's dick" or asking "how much is Blizzard paying you to suck their cock?" is not the same as "foul language". It's is offensive and harassment and has been reported as such.

---------- Post added 2011-05-18 at 10:52 AM ----------

Originally Posted by Keadin84

My goodness. You have no idea, do you? The Asian subs, which make up roughly 50% of the total player base, account for less than 10% of total WoW revenue. That means that if 600k people stop playing in Europe and America, the 50% that accounts for more than 90% of the income, that is a MASSIVE financial loss. In order to make up for that the Asian player base would have to grow exponentially, very quickly. So 600k people quitting is a big deal as it is, if those 600k are from Europe and America WoW is really hurting.

That's why I called you ignorant, because you rush to the defense with twisted facts, so don't tell *me* to engage my brain :P

Why is it that people consider saying they havent lost players (even if in error) is defending them? I have been saying over and over that I dont think this is good of them to do. Im just saying I dont think it will "kill wow" or anything like that. I believe they will "get away with it" unfortunately thats all. I am NOT defending them.

Feature might be worth it if premade cross realm raids, arenas, and battlegrounds are included but it still violates the spirit of the game and things Blizzard has said they would never do since day one. It's just the principle of thing. If they get away with releasing this ingame feature as a premium feature now, where does it end? If this is successful, what other features will they implement down the road that they're going to charge us more for? Weapons? Armor? Trinkets? Zones? Tier? How far does this have to go before we say no! We already payed for the box and we're paying a monthly subscription for access, why are we paying for these services for a THIRD time?

If all those features were included in the price of the premium stuff, that would be even worse. Worth the money, yeah, but worse because it is just further enveloping anything 'new' from Blizzard in any given patch as something 'premium' just because it's 'optional'.